Colnago C60 Review

First Ride: Colnago C60

The Italian-made C60 is heavy and expensive. It’s also a practically perfect embodiment of the legendary marque’s ideals.

matt phillips

Colnago’s signature star-shaping runs the full length of the top tube and down tube and through the lugs. (Matt Phillips)

Compared with the C59, the C60 frame is bigger, stiffer, and slightly lighter. One of the most significant changes, according to Davide Fumagalli, Colnago’s 27-year-old designer, was eliminating the C59’s round tube and lug junctions and extending Colnago’s signature faceted star shape the full length of the tube and through the lugs. The star tube is more resistant to twisting than a round tube, says Fumagalli, plus the keyed interface between tube and lug means that the stiffness in the junction isn’t created only by glue.

The star lug and tube interface can be traced back to a prototype steel bike called the Master Progress built by Colnago in 1986 (seen in the company’s wonderful museum in Cambiago). Extending the star shaping into the lug produced impressive stiffness benefits, company manager Alex Colnago—Ernesto’s nephew—told me. However, the frame proved too difficult to keep in alignment to be mass-produced.

Another change that improves stiffness is an increase in tubing diameter throughout the frame. It’s most easily seen at the down tube, which has swollen from about 44mm on the C59 to 66x52mm on the C60. The seat tube is asymmetric now: The front derailleur limits space on the drive side, but the nondrive side was pushed out as far as possible. And ribs inside the chainstays improve lateral stiffness, Alex says.

Colnago uses a new system it calls PressFit82.5 at the bottom bracket. Fumagalli argues that it is not a new standard, but different approach to the established BB86. The C60 bottom bracket will accept any BB86 compatible crank, like those made by Shimano, SRAM, Campagnolo, and FSA, as well as BB386EVO. However, instead of pressing the BB directly into carbon or a permanently bonded aluminum sleeve, Colnago uses replaceable aluminum cups threaded into a removable center sleeve on the C60.

Fumagalli says press-fit bearing seats wear over time, leading to noise and other problems. By replacing the cups (bearing seats) as they wear, tolerances are kept fresh and the bike is, in theory, smoother and quieter for it. The replaceable bearing-seat philosophy is carried through to the headset as well and appears to be a conscious choice to forgo the weight benefits of direct press-in bearings for a system Colnago feels offers better long-term performance.

In essence, Colnago is attempting to combine the replaceable bearing cups of a threaded system with the benefits of a press-fit system. The wider shell creates the space for the larger, stiffer down tube and seat tube, and the chainstays may be set wider for further stiffness gains.

While Fumagalli claims the C60 is stiffer than the C59, he would not reveal numbers, saying, “It’s really difficult to say how much, because it’s not fair to test just the lateral stiffness, that’s why we didn’t give you a number.”

It’s a vague response, but I accept it because Colnago makes clear its goal of building a great bike, not chasing numbers. I’ve ridden a C59 extensively and though I never had any complaints, I do not consider it a stiff bike. But the C60 is noticeably stiffer and significantly narrows the gap between the C60 and superbikes like the Specialized S-Works Tarmac and Cannondale SuperSix EVO Hi-Mod.

Ernesto Colnago with designer Davide Fumagalli. (Gruber/Colnago)

While stiffer, the C60 is also slightly lighter than the C59. To decrease weight, Colnago thinned tube walls and developed a new set of forged and machined aluminum dropouts. The claimed weight of a painted 52cm C60 is 1,050 grams, 25 grams lighter than the C59. Though updated, the C60’s 1 1/8- to 1 ¼-inch tapered-steerer fork is the same weight as the C59’s: 390 grams.

Just reading 1,050 grams will be enough for many people to write off the C60 (if the price didn’t already). But it’s important to note that Colnago wasn’t chasing the lowest weight possible. The company intentionally chose a heavier construction method, it paints the bikes lavishly and, of no small note, is Ernesto Colnago’s desire to create a safe bicycle.

My conversations with Ernesto about bikes have always touched on the topic of safety. He’s a strong advocate of disc brakes because he believes they will help riders avoid crashes (a disc version of the C60 will debut later this year). In 2007, the first time I interviewed him, he expressed concern over the then-current industry race to build a sub-1,000-gram frame, stating that, though he could build a light bike, building a safe bike was more important to him.

Like all bikes sold in Europe, the C60 must pass the EN14781 impact test. Fumagalli says that while he believes the EN standard is too low, he would confidently ride a bike that is two times stronger than the EN minimum. For a frame to bear the Colnago logo, however, it must exceed the impact test minimum by three-and-a-half times. The C60 exceeds even that cautious mandate, and will take an impact almost five times greater than the EN minimum, says Fumagalli.